Guild Wars 2

My character currently is ele 80 and my skills/traits are like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImSbsR5gjEAkCmEKQg4RFWgRRRO7A

I wear full Carrion Exalted gear +Power/ + Vitality/ + Condition Damage
(all Carrion Intricate Insignias) and this probably is a mistake, but I’m
experimenting anyway. Was hoping to cover lower power with condition
dmg, but this isn’t work as I intended.
Which Insignias would you suggest for Ele focusing on crits?
I have pretty good crit chance since I go full Air MagicTraits + Fire Signet,
so I’m thinking on Valkyrie or Knight Insignias, I still need some vitality or
toughness bonuses to survive, but I also need maximize my damage.

Haven’t played for quite some time really, probably missed some patches,
when I played last time, my build was pretty usefull, don’t know what changed.
but I hope this build is still viable.

Any tips would be welcome.

(Not really glass but it’s more what you asked about, glass is 30-30-0-0-10 with full berzerker everything)

Knight’s armor, stick beryl orbs in it.

If you can afford a few extra gold, do the same with Knight’s trinkets, put exquisite beryl orbs in them, otherwise just go with valkyries trinkets.

Valkyrie’s weapons, sigil of battle or energy. If using 2 handed weapons sigil of force or accuracy, if you can afford extras for stacking, perception or bloodlust.

I’d suggest trading the 10 points in fire into water or earth for more useful defensive traits, but if you leave it, change the trait to the +5% damage to burning foes as it will help your damage in every attunement.

Condition damage builds don’t work well for elementalists generally. Lot’s of reasons but basically the attunement swapping mechanic prevents effective condition application unless you can find something that will stand in eruption for a long time, and then you’re locked out of heals and direct damage and support…..

no
you should get the air trait that gives boons when you use glyphs not 5% pre→healing unless you’re going healing build with no glyphs.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

no
you should get the air trait that gives boons when you use glyphs not 5% pre->healing unless you’re going healing build with no glyphs.

Ah yeah, overlooked that one. That trait is terrible. Even with a ton of precision that’s like 100 healing power max, maybe….

For 30 air I usually take zephyr’s boon for dagger or staff, zephyr’s focus for scepter, and both bolt to the heart and areomancer’s alacrity no matter the weapon set.

Thank you for the tips, I thought maybe 5% > healing is good buff for water magic
as I mostly switch attunements fast in combat, but I didn’t really had time to test
it properly.
If I remove 10 points from fire, I’m afraid I will lose in power > dmg,
and that is critical for me, and it’s really good call to change to 5% burning,
somehow didn’t thought about it.
What about Iscription (grants attunement boon when cast a glyph) in Air Magic?
I have 2 glyphs I cast pretty often with low cd.

Senticon.3452:

Thank you for the tips, I thought maybe 5% > healing is good buff for water magic
as I mostly switch attunements fast in combat, but I didn’t really had time to test
it properly.
If I remove 10 points from fire, I’m afraid I will lose in power > dmg,
and that is critical for me, and it’s really good call to change to 5% burning,
somehow didn’t thought about it.
What about Iscription (grants attunement boon when cast a glyph) in Air Magic?
I have 2 glyphs I cast pretty often with low cd.

Even with maximum precision, the 5%>healing trait will only give you slightly over 100 extra healing power. Not worth blowing a major trait on IMO. Inscription would be a decent choice, especially if you keep renewing stamina instead of changing that to the boon-on-swap trait.

The 10 points in fire gives you +100 power. That’s about 5% of your potential total power, equal to slightly less than 3 stacks of might, and the same as 10 stacks of bloodlust. It’s definitely not a huge amount. Almost any trait in water and many in earth would be more useful than anything in fire, it’s just a lackluster trait line unfortunately. It’s easy to cover loss of power through gear, my general rule is ‘trait for effects, gear for stats’. If you do keep it, the 5% to burning foes is better unless you stay in fire more than 50% of the time, stuff will always be burning, that makes all your skills hit harder (and allows you to do stuff like take the piercing shards trait in water, cast a meteor shower and swap to water immediately for 25% more damage for the rest of the duration….).

Thrashbarg.9820:

(Not really glass but it’s more what you asked about, glass is 30-30-0-0-10 with full berzerker everything)

Says the warrior :P (kidding)

Equipment with Vitality, 10 points in Water, and spending your Air Grandmaster Trait on extra Healing Power is not Glass Cannon.

Regardless, where were you planning on using this?

@Thrashbarg
Hmm, actually didn’t thought about piercing shards that way, since cleansing wave isn’t much of a help. Is it affects maybe Glyphs (like Storm one) or only my own spells?
Gotta test it myself though, but I definitely gonna stick with this.
Anyway, after some tinkering my build is now looks more like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImSbsR5gjEAkCpEKcg4RFW4QRxM7A
I realized that I lack attack power in Air Magic, and since I mostly go AoE
Chain Lightning more effective that way + Lightning Surge does good dmg
to single target especially with lucky crit. And I really can’t find use for Zephyr’s
Boon since I have only one skill that gives me aura, and I don’t use it so often.
With Piercing Shards I’ll gonna switch elements even more, so Elemental Attunement
should give me decent boost there. And I think I gonna leave 10 points in fire as I
need to squeeze any damage that I can, and I’ll compensate lack of toughness/vitality
with gear + Chief prof. buffs.
Anyway, that’s what I think, still need proper testing, spotting any potential mistakes
would be welcome.

@Blaine Tog
If I would stick with only one element (like fire) my build would surely be different,
but I’m trying to be more all-round with every element. Mainly I aim for higher crit
and I will get it with right equipment.
Mostly my char. is PvE and WvWvW oriented. It would be funny build for PvP,
since I would go with Dagger/Focus and completely other type of build.
With my DD orientation, I still need to support my party, that’s why it isn’t
30-30-0-0-10.

Senticon.3452:

And I really can’t find use for Zephyr’s
Boon since I have only one skill that gives me aura, and I don’t use it so often.

Staff has 2 auras, one is hidden in a combo though.

Blast finishing Frozen ground (water #4) gives aoe frost aura, which will carry any of your “aura” trait effects to every target. That’s you and 4 allies buffed with fury (20% more crit), swiftness, -10% damage taken and chilling any enemies who attack. Slotting Arcane Wave instead of Signet of Fire might actually net you more total damage with Zephyr’s Boon, as that would give you 2 blast finishers for more frost aura uptime and 20% crit to 5 people (plus the skill damage itself and the ability to blast finish other fields for might/healing/etc) is probably better than ~9% crit for just yourself (assuming you are using SoF for it’s passive crit increase rather than the burn active).